The invention relates to dispensing flexible sheet material from wound rolls of material, such as paper towels. Particularly, the dispensing of this invention relates to paper towels, tissue paper and like rolls wherein each roll has a hollow central core and is inserted in the dispenser by mounting means carried within the dispenser to engage the opposite ends of the roll core.
The dispensing of a web of flexible sheet material may be carried out in accordance with the instant invention with either a single wound roll or multiple rolls retained for dispensing. Where multiple rolls are dispensed, this is performed on the rolls in succession with unwinding of the material from each roll and assurance that the leading free end on the exterior of the wound roll will feed into the dispensing mechanism with reliability so that the user will have accessibility to the sheet material exteriorally of the dispenser.
Where dispensers of paper towels in roll form are used, the dispenser is generally mounted on a wall in a location where towel availability is desired. In commercial uses large numbers of such dispensers are employed in installations such as factories, office buildings, institutions, etc. Recently, more and more attention has been devoted to consideration of the substantial time and expense required by personnel servicing the large number of dispensers in replenishing the exhausted wound rolls in such dispensers. This is a sizable problem where a single roll is the limit of capability for storage within the dispenser. Still, with a single or multiple roll dispenser, if proper and effective feeding of the towel material from the dispenser is not achieved and/or the material breaks, the dispenser is rendered useless until the malfunction is corrected. But, there are many applications wherein the cost and size of a multiple roll dispenser is not needed and accordingly a dispenser capable of handling only a single roll is fully adequate in the location where towel use is desired.
One of the problems in prior art dispensing of sheet material from a roll by use of a dispenser has been the importance of insuring that the sheet material, such as web of toweling, is positively dispensed out of the dispenser whether it be a single roll dispenser or a multiple roll dispenser. In many applications the gravity of the problem increases as the sheet material is drawn off of the roll and the material is depleted from the roll with concomitant diminishing roll diameter. Thus, the weight and diameter of a full roll in a dispenser, where the roll is resting on a feed roller disposed adjacent the lower end of the dispenser chassis may provide sufficient weight for the material to be firmly pressed against the feed roller and the roll and feed roller will properly rotate together and assure proper feeding of the material out of the usual opening provided at the bottom of a dispenser. When the material on the roll becomes substantially depleted, obviously the weight of the roll pressing down on the feed roller becomes less and less. This means that less pressure is applied against the surface of the feed roller and slippage, failure of feed of the web material from the dispenser or breakage of the material within the dispenser may occur such that the user is thwarted from obtaining the desired towel material.
Whether the dispensing apparatus contemplates single or multiple rolls to be handled by the dispenser it is important that the structure be simple and effective. Attendants who are charged with reloading dispensers could become confused with structures involving complicated dispensing mechanisms and thus the dispenser must be readily understandable and adaptable to easy loading by these attendants. Where threading of even the single lead end of the initial wound roll may be overly complicated with complex dispensers, loading and assurance that the web material is properly placed and that it will continue to feed even though the roll diameter materially diminishes as the material is drawn off of the roll become highly important features in both commercial single or multiple roll dispensers.